Academic exchange within the framework of the APT 2020 project

On February 23, 2023, at Hanoi campus, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) held an academic exchange workshop within the framework of the APT 2020 project. Attending the workshop were Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dang Hoai Bac, President of PTIT, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quang Anh, Vice President of PTIT, Dr. Hiroshi Yamasaki, Secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), Dr. Sheigehiro Ano, President of KDDI Foundation, Japan, Dr. Hirofumi Manabe, Vice President of KDDI Foundation, Japan, Mr. Pham Hong Quang, Director of Department of Information and Communications of Quang Nam Province and project implementation team.

Dr. Hiroshi Yamasaki, APT Secretariat introduced ATP and APT’s support and cooperation with the Ministry of Information and Communications in information and communication technology (ICT) development projects in other countries in Asia in general and Vietnam in particular. At the same time, Dr. Hiroshi Yamasaki thanked the active cooperation from PTIT’s research team during the project implementation.

Speaking at the seminar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quang Anh, Vice President of PTIT, emphasized: As the unique university directly under the Ministry of Information and Communications, over the years, PTIT has risen to become a training institution in the field of post and telecommunications providing high quality human resources for the industry and for Vietnam. PTIT is honored to organize a workshop within the framework of APT program.

APT was founded on the joint initiatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) APT is an intergovernmental organization established in February 1979 with the aim of promoting ICT development in the Asia-Pacific region. As the only intergovernmental organization focusing on ICT field in the Asia-Pacific region, APT provides important platforms for ICT policy and regulatory coordination, and for consolidating regional voices for international fora such as Conferences of International Telecommunication Union (ITU). APT also organizes variety of capacity building programs related to ICT topics, and implements several pilot projects to promote ICT development in the region. The objective of the programme is to promote the exchange of advanced knowledge and technical know-how among ICT researchers/engineers in the Asia-Pacific region through international collaborative research projects on advanced ICT and ICT utilization.

Regarding the project, with the main objective is to use ICT technology, in particularly, UAVs system with image processing, digital map and GPS technologies to help local government and people in the flashflood affected areas to get real time information so they can plan their response quickly and efficiently, the outcome of the project will provide local government and people efficient tools to monitor and access real-time information after a disaster happened. This will be an essential resource for the rescue effort and help reduce the damage caused by the disaster.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Pham Hong Quang Director of Department of Information and Communications of Quang Nam Province shared that since 2020, Quang Nam has cooperated with PTIT and Japanese experts to implement the project “Study of a UAV system for road damage detection after flashflood using GPS, digital map and image processing technology”. This research aims to solve urgent problems of Quang Nam, applying technology transfer from Japanese partners that can be replicated in Vietnamese localities. The outcome of the project will provide local authorities and people in areas affected by storms, floods, and landslides an effective tool for monitoring and accessing real-time information after a disaster occurs.  This is also an effective tool to support rescue forces and reduce damage from natural disasters. The research results of the projects, has the potential of integrating into the province’s information technology system, such as the electronic portal or the “Smart Quang Nam” application. This will bring great benefits to the community, especially it will a great support for the lives of the mountainous ethnic minorities.

Report on research work carried out in Vietnam within the framework of the project showed the main results achieved including: 1) Building a UAV hardware system from open source hardware and software components; 2) Building a software module for image processing to detect landslides based on image processing and artificial intelligence technologies; 3) Building a server software module that displays landslide images on digital maps and issues warnings; 4) Deploying the system in Nam Tra My District, Quang Nam Province.

The research and implementation results of the project are highly appreciated by the partners and are satisfactory for the preparation of the project closing steps and March 2023.